Tune Box
by ToniTheTerror
Summary: Damien has a mysterious secret to show Pip. Ancient Stories of forbidden love enthralls the two magically. A tale of love between two opposites reoccurs as Damien asks Pip to dance. DAMIENxPIP // MYTHOLOGY // HELL-HEAVEN


"To be in the world of sin is to be in league with the devil."

"Oh, do give me a break." Damien called melodramatically from the back of the long classroom. Pip span round, giving Damien a warning look.  
"Damien, I am afraid that in imy/i classroom, students should be silent unless spoken to." The tutor demanded, glaring at the dark haired boy with intense anger. He still however, avoided those terrifying scarlet eyes. Like two deep, bottomless pools of blood – into which you would fall if you got too close to the boy.

Damien gave an exasperated sigh and leant back in his seat.

"The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul, or we get fat."

Damien cackled lightly as he rocked his creaking wooden chair back then forwards in smooth succession.  
"That just goes to show that you can't be evil and stay slim, doesn't it, Cartman?"  
"Ay! You might be the son of the devil, but I can still kick you square in the nuts, you asshole!"

i"Oh dear. Damien, you are going to get in trouble if you continue, and I fear that this time – you might not be able to get out of it."/i Pip thought desperately as he looked from the playful attitude of his only friend, to the angry expression of their tutor.

"Damien! I'll have you know – this is a very serious matter, and that quote was uttered by Sir Isaac Newton himself!"

Damien stared at his tutor for a moment with a fixed glare, before he chuckled lowly and stood from his seat.  
"All you've done through this entire lesson is discriminate against me." He informed the tutor, never breaking eye contact.

His crimson eyes seemed to be attempting to bore deep holes into the man's head.

"You haven't taught anyone in this room anything, other than to be paranoid for fear that my father will damn their soul! I'd like to tell you something, isir/i." He put a disgusted stress on the word 'sir' to indicate that he had no intention what so ever of committing to the teacher-pupil relations.  
"The day of ideath/i is the day of judgement. No day before that does my father give stuck-up fuckers like you even a second glance! You really think my father watches each and every pathetic little mortal on this planet to check they are behaving themselves? He's not fucking Santa Claus!"

The class gave a short, low hustle of laughter before the tutor spoke.  
"Now, see here, Damien-"  
"No I won't i'see here'/b will see here. I am the Son of Satan, but I am also your student!" He paused, looking around the class. He grabbed his almost empty messenger back from the back of his chair and slung it coolly over his left shoulder.

"And as your student, I feel that you have singled me out somewhat. Therefore, I'm leaving your classroom right now." He said, giving a cheeky grin as he sauntered ever closer to the door. However, he stopped just before the exit and stood beside the desk of his friend.  
"And I hope you will be joining me?" he asked, kneeling down to look straight into Pip's periwinkle blue eyes. Pip looked shocked into this unnaturally handsome face, which seemed intent for Pip to accompany him.

"W-Well, Damien... I would like t-to, but-"

"Good." Damien said, tugging Pip up and out of the door before the tutor could even think of retaliating.

A natural uproar erupted from the classroom at this. Some students were laughing, clapping and even cheering. Others were booing, or expressing how unfair it was to them that they could not skip class as they pleased.

Damien dragged Pip along school corridors, down staircases and through countless doors until they reached a pair of large double doors, painted in a glossy green. Damien pushed the door open with his left hand, as his right was still holding Pip's wrist securely.

A burst of sunlight hit the boys, making them both squint as they walked together.  
"D-Damien... Where in the world are we going?"

"I have to show you something..." Damien muttered, leading Pip around to the back of the school.  
"You couldn't have just showed me after school?" Pip asked, brushing his hair from his face.  
"I didn't get out of the lesson for this. I wanted to get out of there anyway."

"Oh, right..." Pip muttered, feeling rather let down by what Damien had just said. Was he merely something to entertain Damien when he was not in class? Damien laughed lightly as he looked back to the little blonde.  
"Don't worry. I wanted you here with me too." He said, slowing slightly as they reached a secluded wall, enclosing the parking lot from the rest of the school.

The wall was covered in multicoloured words, all presumably scrawled by the pupils attending the school. The words ranged from vulgar swear-words, to intense poems.  
Damien stopped under a huge swearing finger and sat down. Pip looked at him; unsure whether he should sit too...  
Damien looked up at Pip with a questioning expression. It was almost accusatory – as if Pip had hurt his feelings by not sitting with him. He patted the space beside him with a hand, keeping focused on the blonde's expression. Pip nodded stupidly and sat down quickly. Damien smiled in a self-satisfied way and began to rummage in his own bag.

Pip remained resolutely still and silent, wondering what Damien was searching for. Just when the blonde was about to ask, Damien pulled a bundle of black velvet from the bag and held it out to Pip. It was vaguely in the shape of a box, but wrapped carelessly and loosely.  
"What is this, Damien?" Pip asked, not taking the box but merely looking at the pale boy to his side.

"Take it and find out." Damien smiled, dropping it gently into Pip's lap.

Pip picked it up carefully. The velvet was smoother than anything he had ever felt, it caressed his hands as it fell away from the box.  
Pip unwound the last fold that had caught on the corner and held the object in his cupped hands.  
It was a box indeed, but carved into the lid was a design of some sort. Pip brought the box closer to his sparkling eyes to inspect the carving further.

It depicted a tall, cloaked form, dancing with a skeleton. The pair were surrounded by piles of skulls, each with their jaws wide as if they were singing.

There were strange markings following around the lid top, looking slightly like they could possibly be letters in some demonic language.

Pip could say nothing about the morbid beauty of the box, as it wasn't really pretty but it wasn't ugly either.

"What... What is it?" he repeated, looking up to Damien's face with a confused expression. Damien rolled his eyes and took the box from Pip carefully.  
"Humans..." he grumbled as he set it down on his knees. He opened the lid slowly to reveal red velvet inside. Sitting atop a small ledge inside the box was a small model of the carving. A tall, hooded figure, presumably made from wood too and wearing a fabric cloak dancing with a skeleton. The skeleton was almost precise in everything but real life proportion. The skull was small and the back hunched over, as if the skeleton had become old and tired with dancing for eternity. But every bone was cut from the wood so carefully that it almost seemed to be real.

Damien turned the box around, so that he was facing the back of the box and the two small figures faced the parking lot. Damien's fingers found a small hole at the back of the box.

"See that?" he asked, tapping the hole and lifting the box slightly to show Pip. Pip nodded, seeing that the hole was shaped in a small square shape, so tiny that he could think of nothing small enough to fit into it.  
"What could be that small?" Pip asked, looking at Damien's bag, and imagining that he had some sort of chipped away stick to fit into the hole. Damien grinned and slid a hand down the front of his own shirt, pulling out his black chain, beholding the silver reversed cross pendant.

"Oh..." Pip said, a look of dawning realisation upon his face as Damien inserted the end of the cross into the hole and turned it anti-clockwise a few times.

The figures in the box began to spin slowly around as a tinkling and rather sinister tune spiralled its way from the depths of the box. It was a high pitched song, seeming to be enigmatic in the sense that it pulled you in, rather than happy or sad.

Pip indeed felt like he was being pulled in to the tune. The sound wound its way into his brain, wrapping itself around his thoughts and memories, making him forget everything but...  
"Damien." Pip muttered, unaware he had even spoken. His eyes were slightly glassy as he stared at the twirling figures. Damien smirked to himself, resting the music box down on the ground beside him. Pip immediately came out of the reverie, shaking his head and feeling rather stupid for becoming entranced with such a simple trinket. Damien got to his feet and stood before Pip, reaching a hand down to him.  
"Care to dance?"

Pip stared at Damien's hand for a minute, wondering whether Damien would trick him and withdraw his hand the minute Pip took it. Then he decided he was being paranoid, and took the hand.

Damien pulled Pip in close and placed his hand on Pip's almost feminine waist, keeping his other hand grasped to the one he had pulled Pip to his feet with. This made Pip's stomach give a strange lurch as he placed his free hand upon Damien's shoulder. Damien smiled down at the smaller boy affectionately and moved his left feet elegantly. Pip followed Damien's well forwarded lead, spinning when he span and stepping when he stepped. He wondered for a moment, how long this song actually lasted. Damien had only turned the necklace a few times after all.

He looked to the box and saw that the two models had left their stand and were now dancing with each other along the patch of ground in front of the music box. Pip's eyes widened and he tried to back away in shock, but Damien kept a vigil hold upon his hand and waist, keeping him close.

"There is nothing to be scared of. They can't hurt you." Damien said, looking at the dancing models. The Skeleton seemed to be rejuvenated; the spine straight and in perfect body proportion.

"W-What are they?!" Pip asked, shuddering slightly as the Skeleton span and Pip caught a sight of its empty eyes.  
"Just models." Damien shrugged, "With a curse upon them." He added, giving Pip a fanged grin and a low laugh.

"A curse?" Pip repeated, looking interested but also scared. Damien smiled lightly and knelt to pick the two models and the box from the floor.

"The whole tune box itself is cursed by Carminac and Venus themselves. A long time ago, even before my father was ruler of the underworld, one of his ancestors, Carminac, visited the human world in the hope to rid it of another Saint. Saint Valentine." Damien began, holding the box up and dropping the two models upon their stand again.

"But when he arrived, a goddess had got there first. This was of course Venus, and she had been ordered to protect Valentine from Carminac. Carminac had been warned of this possibility and had been prepared for battle. When he laid eyes upon Venus, he fell in love with her instantly and had no intention of fighting her. Carminac was and still is a recognised Demon of love in hell, just as Venus is in Heaven. The pair were madly in love, but obviously the king of hell, who was then named Teitan, and the lord in heaven forbade this entirely and split the two apart."

"Carminac could do nothing for his love, but Venus could. She had sinned by falling in love with an unpure soul, and therefore gave up her immortality and her position as Goddess of Love in Heaven all for Carminac. To attempt to keep Venus away from Carminac, even when she was a mortal upon earth, The Lord made her unable to commit suicide. So she lived out sixty six painful and loveless years, as did Carminac in hell below."

"When Venus finally died, she went straight to hell and met her love again. Their reunion did not last long, however, for Teitan had been notified of Venus' entrance to hell and was furious. As Carminac had always been faithful to the throne, Teitan did not kill him and his love, he merely trapped them inside this music box."

Damien held up the box and Pip saw that the two characters were held in the same stance that he and Damien had been in a while ago.

"The hooded figure is Carminac and the skeleton is Venus."

"She is a skeleton?" Pip asked with a small voice from shock.

"Of course. She was a mortal after all. She becomes frail and slouched over when the box is not used for a long time. Mostly because dancing is the only time she can truly spend time with her love." Damien said, touching the box with a sympathetic look in his eyes. "Sometimes I leave the box playing all night, just to let them enjoy each other's company."

Pip's heart fluttered. "Oh, Damien. That is so nice of you. I would have never expected it of you."

Damien gave Pip a slightly hurt, angry look and Pip knew instantly what he had said wrong.  
"Just because I'm the Son of Satan, doesn't mean I don't ha-"

"I know, I know! I'm sorry!" Pip assured, putting a hand on Damien's arm. "I didn't mean to stereotype you."

Damien's frown softened and he sighed, "I know.." he smiled, putting his arm around Pip's shoulders and grinning.

A bell sounded somewhere far off in the distance.

"Shit, we better go." Damien said, closing the box and kneeling beside his bag.

"Why? You're only going to be told off for skipping class." Pip said as he followed Damien and knelt beside him, handing the black velvet over to him as he did so. Damien wrapped it around the box and tucked it neatly inside his bag.  
"Me? Getting punished? I highly doubt that." He cackled. He stood and then helped Pip up. "Besides, you were with me. So you can be punished too, or will you claim that I seduced you into it with my devilishly handsome charm?"

"Claim? I'll give truthful testament to that fact."


End file.
